Service users supporting each other can reduce NHS mental health costs while improving outcomes, says a new report.

‘Peer support’ is when people use knowledge from their own experience to help others through distress.

It also enables people using services to get into paid work as part of their recovery, according to a report by the King’s Fund and the Centre for Mental Health.

The report, ‘Mental health and the productivity challenge – Improving quality and value for money’, was published yesterday in response to a government demand that the NHS find £20bn of efficiency savings by 2014.

Mental health accounts for 12% of the NHS budget.

The report lists many ways in which productivity can be improved. In particular, it suggests: